FAKE 4 GOOD

TitleFAKE 4 GOOD
BrandSOLIDARITÉ SIDA
Product/ServiceTRUMP DEEPFAKE VIDÉO
Category B02. Non-profit / Foundation-led Education & Awareness
Entrant SOLIDARITE SIDA Paris, FRANCE
Idea Creation LA CHOSE Paris, FRANCE
PR LA CHOSE Paris, FRANCE
Production LA CHOSE Paris, FRANCE
Credits
Name Company Position
Pascal Grégoire la chose Founder
Eric Tong Cuong la chose Founder
Fabien Teichner la chose Chief Creative Officer
Shaun Severi la chose Creative Director
Arnaud Girard la chose Copywriter
Léo Debernardi la chose Art Director
Pauline Garoux la chose Account Executive
François Peretti la chose Planner
Barka Zerouali la chose Communication Director
Nicolas Buisset la chose Production Manager
Laura Sacarrère la chose Producer
Shaun Severi la chose Creative Director
Eric Tong Cuong la chose Founder
Barka Zerouali la chose Communications Director
Pauline Garoux la chose Account Manager

Background

The eradication of AIDS is possible. Today, there exist antiviral drugs that can reduce the viral load to undetectable levels. However, a large portion of the global population still doesn't have access to these therapies, and the death toll due to AIDS currently stands at 16 million per year, which represents half of all HIV-positive people. The replenishment conference of the Global Fund took place for the first time in France, at Lyon. This was an opportunity to raise the 14 billion dollars needed to eradicate AIDS. Since the virus first appeared, a lot of false information has been circulated, and to this day people are still unaware of just how dangerous AIDS still is, and yet how close we are at putting an end to it. But this is the reality. That's why this digital awareness-raising campaign was needed to mobilize public opinion and put pressure on our leaders.

Describe the creative idea

Fake news and DeepFakes are making headlines these days, particularly in the political arena, and sometimes even emanating from within the political sphere itself. We had 3 days to place AIDS and Solidarité Sida at the centre of public debate and of the news. That's why we chose this approach and utilized it in favour of this important cause. And what better ambassador for this technology than the man who's made disinformation a political strategy in itself. Donald Trump was the ideal candidate to make the fake announcement of the final eradication of AIDS. We chose Twitter to broadcast the video, as it's the perfect platform to broadcast an item of news and foster ongoing debate.

Describe the strategy

Today, AIDS seems like a forgotten illness. Following its peak death toll of the 1980s, most people now believe that AIDS has disappeared or that it no longer represents a deadly threat. They are thus party to the trivialization of the disease, resulting from a lack of public awareness about the issue. But that's of course false: AIDS continues to infect over 5000 people globally each day, and to kill 3000 others. And this ignorance only serves to foster the resurgence of the disease. To raise awareness of this alarming trend and communicate about the extreme importance of replenishing the Global Fund, we decided to confront the public with the absurdity of this "Fake News". We needed to highlight its power of disinformation as it announces the eradication of AIDS, while suggesting that with everyone's help, this time, it could indeed be done.

Describe the execution

To create this video we chose to utilize the technology known as "deepfake". We combined a real speech by Donald Trump with that of an actor, this with the use of AI and a number of special effects. The artificial intelligence was employed for several weeks prior to the launch of the video in order to mirror reality as closely as possible. The video was broadcast on the Twitter account of Solidarité Sida via YouTube on Monday October 7th morning, 3 days before the announcement of the replenishment of the Global Fund against AIDS. During these 3 days, we set up a war room to moderate comments and manage the press coverage. To capture the attention of selected media outlets we sent press kits announcing the end of AIDS to a number of journalists 2 days before the campaign, and invited them to learn more by visiting aidsisover.org.

List the results

Solidarité Sida's objective was to trigger public opinion and put pressure on our heads of State to ensure that the replenishment of the Global Fund was a success. That objective was reached. The 14.02 billion dollars were raised, notably thanks to the last minute efforts made by France (to the tune of 60 million euros, representing +20% compared to the period 2016-2019, after an initial announcement of +15% in the morning, resulting in a total of 1.296 billion dollars, or 1.176 billion euros) and by the Bill Gates foundation (also 60 million). In terms of engagement, the #Treatment4all hashtag was retweeted 4 million times, the video obtained 8 million views in 4 days, with a total reach of 60 million.